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sourceDocument: Australia IT Operations Management
sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-operations-management

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    - australia

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Australia IT Operations Management

ft:clusterId :

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workflow :

    - Technology


---

# Serverless Discovery

# Serverless Discovery {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Australia  
Updated September 1, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 minutes to read
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![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI  
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## Summary of Serverless Discovery

Serverless Discovery in ServiceNow enables you to identify application configuration items (CIs) on host machines without needing to discover the host itself first.
This approach bypasses the traditional scanning and classification phases of Discovery by using infrastructure patterns to explore CIs directly.
There are two main types of serverless Discovery: standard and host-based, each designed for different discovery scenarios but both requiring infrastructure patterns.
Show full answer Show less  

## Key Features

* **Standard Serverless Discovery:** Discovers remote application CIs on unknown hosts using protocols like REST or HTTP, without requiring the host's IP address. You define input parameters in an infrastructure pattern to connect to remote resources, ideal for discovering web-based applications.
* **Host-Based Serverless Discovery:** Finds CIs residing on a host machine that has already been discovered. The host acts as a proxy to reach other CIs without running Discovery directly on the host. This is useful when CIs have unknown or no IP addresses. It uses infrastructure patterns that execute operations such as WMI Queries on the host, leveraging the host's credentials to discover additional CIs without needing separate credentials.
* **Infrastructure Patterns:** Essential to both types, these patterns define how Discovery connects and identifies CIs. For standard serverless Discovery, input parameters must be set; for host-based, operations can be defined to make API calls or queries from the host.
* **Discovery Scheduling:** Serverless Discovery uses specific serverless Discovery schedules instead of classifiers. The schedules allow specifying input parameters for standard serverless Discovery or selecting a proxy host CI for host-based serverless Discovery.

## Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

* Enables discovery of applications and CIs even when host details or IP addresses are unknown.
* Reduces the time and complexity by skipping host scanning and classification phases.
* Allows leveraging existing discovered hosts to proxy discovery of additional CIs.
* Facilitates discovery of web-based applications through protocol-based connections.
* Improves credential management by using host credentials during host-based discovery, reducing the need for multiple credentials.
* Provides debugging capabilities to view temporary variables and fine-tune infrastructure pattern operations.

By using serverless Discovery, ServiceNow customers can efficiently expand their CMDB with application data in environments where traditional host discovery is impractical or unnecessary.  
Discovery can find applications on host machines without the need to discover the host
first. This type of Discovery is referred to as serverless
Discovery.
Serverless Discovery relies on infrastructure patterns to explore CIs on a host. This kind of Discovery skips the [scanning and classification
phases of Discovery](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/SotY1kbxGXkCxDgjjGC1lA "Horizontal discovery with patterns has four phases, just as horizontal discovery with probes does. However, for the last two phases, Discovery triggers operations from a pattern, rather than additional sets of probes."). There are two types of serverless Discovery: standard and host-based. Both types require an infrastructure pattern.

## Standard serverless Discovery {#serverless-discovery__section_ypx_tlm_5z}

Standard serverless Discovery finds remote application CIs that reside on an unknown host.
This type of serverless Discovery uses protocols, such as REST or HTTP, to find the CIs. The IP
address of the host machine is not required. You define input parameters in an infrastructure
pattern to connect to a remote resource. Use this type of Discovery when you want to discover
web-based applications.

## Host-based serverless Discovery {#serverless-discovery__section_f3n_5lm_5z}

Host-based serverless Discovery finds CIs that reside on a host machine that you already discovered. The host acts as a proxy through which you find other CIs. You do not actually run Discovery on the host. Use this type of Discovery when:

* You do not know the IP address of the CIs you want to discover, or the CIs do not actually have IP addresses.
* The CIs reside on an already discovered host CI.
{#serverless-discovery__ul_ush_kq4_zz}

For this type of Discovery, you also need an infrastructure pattern, but you do not need to
define input parameters like you do for standard serverless Discovery. The pattern can specify
operations, such as a WMI Query, which executes queries on a host. After Discovery connects to
the host, it uses the credentials of the host to perform the Discovery of CIs you are exploring
in the pattern. You do not need to specify additional credentials. When you run debug mode on
the pattern, you can see the details under Temporary Variables on the
pattern. You can then create pattern operations that make API calls from the host to the CIs you
are trying to discover.

## Serverless Discovery schedules {#serverless-discovery__section_tkm_1yl_5z}

The infrastructure patterns that serverless Discovery uses are triggered from a Discovery schedule, rather than from a classifier. Serverless Discovery ignores classifiers. Use a serverless schedule type for both types of serverless Discovery. The serverless schedule allows you to specify:

* Values for input parameters in the pattern if you are using standard serverless Discovery. See [Create a schedule for standard serverless Discovery](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/FVhWpiQ97QLbIUeCxR6jkA#create-serverless-disco-schedule "After you create a pattern for standard serverless discovery, create a Discovery schedule and specify the pattern. Discovery triggers the pattern from the schedule rather than from a classifier.") for instructions.
* A host CI if you are using proxy-host based Discovery. See [Create a schedule for host-based serverless Discovery](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/zbECb1SHkTGmVJ8yHrNk~w#create-proxy-serverless-disco-schedule "Discovery triggers the pattern for host-based, serverless Discovery from the schedule rather than from a classifier.") for more information.
{#serverless-discovery__ul_uyh_svm_5z}